Page 67 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

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“That’s it?” I ask, peering out the window of the gunship. In the distance I spot the gray spaceship that’s approaching us fast.

“That could be the one,” Sigise says, checking the screen in front of her and asking the pilot for details.

“It looks strange, but it’s the closest ship in orbit right now.

And it has changed its course to come towards us.

Most of the other ships are with the Prince on his campaign.

I couldn’t arrange a Navy ship like this without Prince Mareliux’s help, so I don’t know what it would look like.

I only know that our escape ship would reply with the correct password if queried.

Which this one is not doing yet. It’s only signaling us to dock with it. ”

“Maybe Mareliux gave us an old one because it stays at Earth,” I think out loud. “It may be easier for our scientists to reverse-engineer than other ships.”

“That’s possible,” Sigise says absentmindedly as we approach the ship. ”Or it may be the only one he can spare— ah, there we go. It’s transmitting the code word on a tight beam that can only be seen by us.”

“So it’s the right one?” The ship gives me a weird feeling. It looks unusual.

“If it has the code, it must the one Prince Mareliux arranged for us. I can see other ones further away, but only this one is transmitting the code continuously, right at us.”

“Is it supposed to?” For some reason I don’t like that. It seems too eager, somehow.

“Not really. But it saves us time. We don’t have to ask all the others ships here if they know the password.”

The gunship flies a slow circle around the other ship.

It looks nothing like the Gladiux , or the gunships I’ve seen.

The proportions are wrong. Where Khavgren spaceships are smooth and have a sleek elegance to them, this one is all jagged edges and protruding spears and spikes. It is asymmetrical and plain ugly.

“I think Mareliux pointed it out last time, when we first arrived on Khav,” I say slowly. “But it could be another one.”

Sigise listens to something on the comms.

“The pilot thinks it looks weird, too,” she says. “We’ve never seen one like that. Either it’s really old, or it’s a ship we have gotten from somewhere else. The Empire owns a lot of ships. I’ll check with its crew.”

She gets busy with the comms. I check my gun, just to be sure.

This could still go wrong. But it’s a good sign that I recognize the ship.

Probably, Mareliux made me subtly aware of it back then so that I’d remember it if I saw it again.

It would confirm to me that it’s the right one, without him having to tell me directly.

“It checks out,” Sigise finally says. “‘Ashlynn’. They say if we don’t think the ship is pretty enough for us, we should take a hard look at our own gunship.” She chuckles. “Those Navy guys are something else.”

The gunship flies into the spaceship’s hangar with an exaggerated use of engines and advanced moves that tells me the army pilot wants to show off for the navy staff.

It touches down, bounces once on its suspension, and then the engines spin down.

“There’s air outside,” Sigise tells me as she unsnaps our harnesses. “Navy air, but I suppose we can’t be too choosy.”

The door slides open and I climb out, weapon held casually across my chest. It should all be perfectly safe, but I still have a weird feeling about this ship. It doesn’t feel right through the Syntrix.

Sigise joins me while the pilot turns the gunship off.

“No welcome party,” she says, puzzled. “I would have expected some attention right now, with a princess and everything…”

The hangar is empty apart from our gunship. It’s much smaller than the one in the Gladiux , which is natural since it’s a smaller ship. It smells the same, and it almost makes it feel like home.

“We’ll let them know we’re here,” I decide and walk towards the wide double doors at the end of the hangar.

When we’ve walked five steps, the door slides open and a group of people come out. They’re wearing uniforms, but they look surprisingly thin for Khavgren soldiers. There’s also something weird about the way they walk.

The pilot climbs down behind us. “Looks like the Navy should feed their guys better?—”

There’s a white flash, a bang echoes through the hangar, and the pilot collapses to the ground.

“Get down!” Sigise draws her gun and pushes me to the metal floor, then starts shooting at the welcoming committee.

It takes me a split second to realize that they’re shooting at us, the muzzles of their guns flashing as they spread out.

Sigise keeps firing at them, and I lift my gun, too.

It’s awkward to aim it while lying on the floor, but I manage to get a few shots off.

The gun makes an ugly, tearing sound, but it doesn’t kick against my shoulder, so it must be a pure energy weapon.

Still shooting, we both crawl backwards into cover behind the landing gear of our big gunship.

“Imperial Legionnaire!” Sigise yells to identify herself to these attackers. “Friendlyl Hold your fire!”

But I don’t think they’re friendly at all. I don’t even think they’re Khavgrens. They have a more fluid way of moving, and I don’t see any tendrils. They remind me more of Vyrpy.

“They’re Vyrpy,” Sigise says tightly while she adjusts the sights on her gun. “You took down two of them, but they’re still coming.”

I dare a quick look, sticking my head out from the landing gear. Sure enough, the hangar is filling up with Vyrpy. Only a couple of them are in Khavgren uniforms, the rest are the sleek gray of the Vyrpy I remember from the escape pod fight.

Getting back to safety, I put my gun out from behind cover and shoot a long salvo of energy beams. I hear some alien screams and grunts.

I quickly look around. The hangar doors are closed, and if we want to leave, we’d have to restart the gunship and hope to be able to shoot our way out. It’s obvious that the Vyrpy would overwhelm us before we could even get the engines started.

The Vyrpy are still flowing in like ants from an anthill, climbing the walls and running easily on the ceiling.

“Do you have a grenade?” I ask. “We’ll have to take them all out.”

“The only grenade I have would kill everyone in here, including us,” Sigise says as she shoots aimlessly into the mass of enemies. “And we’re not quite there yet.”

“We’re not?” I ask as I shoot at the nearest enemies. There must be a hundred of them now, and there’s no way we can escape this.

“They don’t want you dead,” the colonel says while shooting. “It goes against the rules of engagement to kill yourself if there’s a chance you’ll be captured. Unless blowing yourself up could save your buddies, which is not the case here. You’re more trouble to the enemy while alive.”

“Does that go for Imperial princesses, too?” I’m getting used to the gun, and I think I hit with every shot.

Two Vyrpy come dropping from the ceiling, landing on the floor with sickening splats.

“Very much so,” Sigise says, her voice strained. “It’s you they want. Make as much trouble for them as you can. We’ll soon be out of ammunition— yes. That’s all I had.”

The Vyrpy are completely surrounding us. They’ve stopped shooting, but I drop two more of them before my gun buzzes once and stops reacting to the trigger.

I put it down. “All right. They got us. Thanks, Sigise. You did your best.”

“They gave us the right password,” Sigise seethes as she puts her own gun down.

I consider using my knife gun to finish another few Vyrpy while I’m still able to, then decide against it. If they let me keep it, I may be able to use it for something better.

The Vyrpy in Khavgren uniforms are all down, but I don’t think it makes much of a difference. There are many left. They shoot several sticky nets on us and tighten them without speaking.

But I’m starting to wonder if Vyrpy communicate with smell, because the stench is the same as in the escape pod of the Gladiux.

I get a better look at them this time. Gray and sleek, they’re wearing tight-fitting, metallic suits that cover them from the neck to their feet.

Those are bare, with three splayed toes with black claws instead of toenails.

They’re tall and strong, and their elongated heads have ridges that run along the sides.

Either their eyes are just big, mirrored half-spheres or they’re all wearing some kind of covering over them.

I can see myself in them, distorted to look like my head is disproportionately big.

They’re much more alien than Khavgrens, and because I’ve never heard them speak, only scream, they’re scarier.

Without getting too close, the Vyrpy tighten the nets until Sigise and I are pushed closely together. They drag us across the metal floor towards the exit. Dozens of them are crawling around and inside the gunship, and I doubt it will ever fly again.

“Stay calm,” Sigise says. “If all hope is lost, I will blow us both up. And most of this ship at the same time.”

We’re dragged out of the hangar and along a corridor. I don’t think this ship was made by the Vyrpy — it looks nothing like them. Everything is a dark blue, even the light, and the walls are smooth and shiny.

I take stock of my situation. Not great, but not hopeless.

I still have my knife-slash-gun with its five shots.

I still have my clothes on, and that’s never a given in space, as my experience shows.

My morale isn’t the greatest, but it’s been pretty lacking since Mareliux left anyway. I still have some fight in me.

We’re brought into a big cargo hold lit in sickly green. It’s stacked from floor to ceiling with small cages. In each cage there’s an alien. I see Khavgrens and various others that I remember from the informational material about the Khavgren Empire.